For all the talk of a rivalry between Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks, it wasn’t much in evidence on the ice of Rogers Arena on Saturday. The Oilers were ragdolled by the Canucks 6-2, in a horror show of a game that probably wasn’t that close.

Oilers had a good start, scoring an early goal and then drawing a powerplay. That’s where things started to come off the rails, two minutes of chaos highlighted by a shorthanded goal by the Canucks on a breakaway from their own blueline. Oilers meanwhile never even came close to mustering a shot. From there, Vancouver toyed with Edmonton, firing 15 straight shots at the Oilers’ net at one point and running the official shot count to 22-8 by the end of the first. Devan Dubnyk battled hard to hold his team in the game for most of the first, but was undone in the last two minutes by another long shot, a weird dipping deflection that found a(nother) hole, then 18 seconds later by an unstoppable four-way passing play started by Taylor Hall’s nifty feed to the nearest Canuck.

Vancouver kept on rolling in the second, running the lead to 5-1 by the time Dubnyk got the hook midway through the frame. The rest of the game was garbage time, and while Edmonton’s play got slightly better down the stretch, they were outshot and outscored in each of the three periods. They also lost the battle at even strength and on both special teams. It was a comprehensive beatdown with few redeeming moments.

At game’s end, CBC’s Glenn Healy was ranting about how the Oilers won the statistical battle, that he cherry picked to include faceoffs (31-26), hits (38-22), and blocked shots (19-10), but more than anything those stats highlighted which team didn’t have the puck most of the night and was reacting to the play rather than initiating it. Teams that win statistical battles don’t get outshot 44-23 and outscored 6-2. It wasn’t pretty, folks. It also wasn’t the end of the world, two games down and 80 to go.

Player Grades

The following are the player grades for the Oilers, with 10 being a “perfect” game, 9 extraordinary, 8 great, 7 good, 6 above average, 5 average, 4 below average, 3 poor, 2 terrible and 1 deserving of almost instant demotion. Compiled by Bruce McCurdy.

#1 Jason LaBarbera, 6. Stopped everything he faced (12 shots) after getting the call late in the second. Had a couple of fat rebounds that didn’t wind up costing him, otherwise solid.

#2 Jeff Petry, 5. Scored the early goal on a shot through Luongo that gave Oilers fans a glimmer of hope, but helped give it back when he tipped what should have been a harmless slapshot from the blueline and turned it into a nasty dipping deflection that fooled Dubnyk. Bad luck, sure, but no reason to have his stick anywhere in the picture to challenge a shot from that distance. Played a whopping 6:12 on the penalty kill as the Oilers beat a steady path to the sin bin all night.

#4 Taylor Hall, 2. Just a dreadful game in which Hall posted a miserable -4 while watching a fifth from the penalty box. Officially charged with one giveaway (that led directly to the game-winning goal against), the play died on Hall’s stick time and again all night long. One example was the 2-on-1 rush where he neither passed nor shot but tried to make an extra move only to be stripped of the puck, then followed through and took a penalty by running Dale Weise in the corner. There was a pound of flesh aspect to that one given the pair’s history a fortnight ago, but it proved costly. Oilers were outshot 8-3 when Hall was on the ice at even strength. Did manage a respectable 10/16=63% in the faceoff circle.

#5 Ladi Smid, 4. Played his usual sandpaper game, leading the Oilers defence crew with 6 hits and 4 blocked shots, but had a couple of coverage issues. Like his partner Petry played over 6 minutes on the PK. Stood up to Tom Sestito after the Canucks heavyweight had taken a run at Justin Schultz.

#6 Jesse Joensuu, 4. Just when it seemed the Oilers might have finally found a live one in their ongoing search for the mythical power forward, he goes and bungs up his back one game into his Oilers career. Played 6½ minutes before calling it a night early in the second period, but was a complete non-factor.

#13 Mike Brown, 4. Played 7 minutes, during which time the Oilers didn’t generate a single shot on goal. Did an effective job pounding the boards at times (5 hits), but took a needless roughing penalty in a scrum late in the first that left the Oilers shorthanded and still skating uphill to start the second.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 5. Made two of the best passes of the night with a pair of seeing eye backhand dishes from the neutral zone that sent Arcobello and JSchultz in for splendid scoring chances. Had a couple of issues in his own zone.

#15 Nick Schultz, 4. Somehow posted a +1 on a night Oilers were outshot 9-2 with him on the ice. Oilers were weak behind their own blueline all night long, and while Schultz wasn’t the worst offender he wasn’t the solution either.

#19 Justin Schultz, 4. Had some folks suggest to me on Twitter that he was the worst Oiler on the ice, and others that he was the best. That definitely depended on what zone the puck was in, and which team had possession of it. Activated into the rush numerous times, getting robbed by Roberto Luongo once, hitting the crossbar twice, and providing an odd-man decoy that opened up the ice for Gordon’s goal. But made a major blunder at the offensive blueline on the shortie, and another with a bad giveaway directly to the goal scorer on the 5-1 goal.

#20 Luke Gazdic, 5. A couple of hits, a fight, beat the puck square. In other words, pretty much his job description to a T.

#21 Andrew Ference, 4. A little more chaos behind his own blueline than one might expect from such an experienced vet.

#26 Mark Arcobello, 6. Among the best of the Oil on this night, leading the team in both attempted shots (7) and, surprisingly, in hits (also 7). 4 of those shots were on goal, including Luongo’s best stop of the night when Arco was sent in by Eberle. I liked his smarts with the puck and his energy without it. Oilers outshot Vancouver 8-6 when he was on the ice, the only player on the team with this distinction.

#27 Boyd Gordon, 7. He too had a strong night, playing over 6½ minutes on the PK, blocking 4 shots, and posting a solid 10/16=63% on the dot including 5/9 in the D-zone. Topped it off with a very nice goal on a gorgeous shot, which cut the gap to 5-2 and at least stopped the bleeding of five straight goals against.

#40 Devan Dubnyk, 3. A second consecutive tough night for the Oilers’ #1. He had a long stretch in the first where he was the only thing stopping the Canucks from running up the score, but the dam burst late in that period. Was a little unlucky on the weird deflection, and totally unsighted on the fifth goal by Ryan Kesler which drove him from the net, but the fact remains that both shots beat him on the short side. Had little chance on the other three. The lack of confidence the organization showed in him when they were sniffing around Jonathan Bernier and Cory Schneider this summer has either gotten to him a little, or he is repaying it in kind. Needs to get out of this funk in a real hurry.

#41 Will Acton, 4. His line had 3 offensive zone starts and none in the defensive zone, yet failed to muster a shot on goal. Nail Yakupov, meanwhile, had 1 offensive zone start all night. Not sure what is the point of wasting o-zone opportunities on a trio as offensively inept as Gazdic-Acton-Brown.

#57 David Perron, 5. He’s a real gamer with a bit of an edge. Got down and dirty with a couple of wrestling holds in scrums. Drew 3 penalties, but took 3 of his own. Led the team with 5 shots on goal, also had 3 hits and was one of the most involved of the Oil.

#64 Nail Yakupov, 5. Was involved physically, throwing his weight around with abandon on one shift in particular when the Oilers were crying for an infusion of energy. Made one fabulous set-up when he dangled into Canucks territory, buttonhooked back out to the line, then with the Canucks thoroughly discombobulated, fed Justin Schultz who found iron. His shooting eye was off, however; just one shot on net, while misfiring on three straight attempts late in the third which left him banging his stick on the ice in frustration. Not much accomplished, but a much better game on the eve of his 20th birthday.

#77 Anton Belov, 4. A couple of early penalties which didn’t help at all, though one was a bit of a bogus call for high-sticking on what was clearly a follow-through. Was bailed out by Dubnyk a couple of times after being schooled in his own zone. Oilers were outshot 8-2 while the big Russian was out there at evens. There appears to be a player in here, but he will be a work-in-progress for a while yet.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 4. Made a bad back pass which started the fire drill on the game-turning shorthanded goal. Later made a very nice play and pass to Gordon for the second Oilers goal, but by then the horse was long since stolen. That was the only even-strength shot the Oilers mustered with Hemsky on the ice, compared to 8 against, as the “first” line really had its struggles. He was by far the best of the trio, which is damnation by faint praise. Was one of Oilers better backcheckers on this night.

#94 Ryan Smyth, 2. His 1,200th NHL game was not a memorable one, at least not in the good sense. Oilers were outshot 9-1 while he was on the ice at evens, and gave up two goals while he was out there on the powerplay. An unsightly -4 on the night in just 11 minutes of action. Father Time appears to have caught up with the popular veteran, and it’s not pretty to watch.

Next up: New Jersey at Edmonton, Monday October 7, 19:30.

Insult to injury as Jason Garrison’s clearing shot caught an edge and rolled right into Edmonton’s empty net to close out the scoring. It wasn’t Oilers’ night.Submitted Photo

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